Book Description

It is with these words that an unknown alien attacker destroys the Earth cities of Tehran, Sydney and Beijing. Fifty million people die... and nothing is ever the same again.

Some call them Demons, some call them Aliens, but to Chinese Naval Captain Melissa Liao they are the enemy. She is given command of one of three great warships built to fight the "demons", the TFR Beijing.

Her task is simple. Find who attacked Earth and why... then stop them.

It is with these words that an unknown alien attacker destroys the Earth cities of Tehran, Sydney and Beijing. Fifty million people die... and nothing is ever the same again.

Some call them Demons, some call them Aliens, but to Chinese Naval Captain Melissa Liao they are the enemy. She is given command of one of three great warships built to fight the "demons", the TFR Beijing.

Her task is simple. Find who attacked Earth and why... then stop them.

I became aware of this author after finding a slashdot posting a few months ago where he engaged in a shameless plug for the book (which was okay because the post was on subject). The first 3 chapters were available online and I read them that night. I was hooked, and put his website in my feed reader so I'd know when the book was released.

Fast forward to today, the book is available and I bought a copy for my kindle. It's not particularly long and the plot moves along quite well. The premise is the typical sci-fi staple, aliens attack and Earth must retaliate/defend itself. I liked the technology in the book, thought the main characters were well fleshed out, and overall liked the book. It's a first novel. The ending is a little abrupt, I would have liked to see a little more resolution but perhaps he's got a sequel planned.

I like to support first time authors, especially when I can read the first few chapters and know I'm getting a good book. Everyone can write a book but not everyone can write an engaging, entertaining book on their first attempt. There were some textual errors, typos, missing word or extremely awkward phrasing. But I only counted 5-10 of these. Another proofread would have been helpful. However, he's not charging $10 for the book like some other kindle editions that have these same issues so I can tolerate it. Give it a try, I liked it.

**Update**The author released a revised version that has fixed the minor typos. See his comment on this review.

I have read a little more than half of the book, and have come to the conclusion that I cannot suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy this story. What follows contains spoilers, so proceed with caution. For those who do not want to read said spoilers, I will get right to my conclusion: an interesting premise, ruined by poor plot and character development.

The book starts off with a surprise attack on Sydney, Tehran and Beijing by aliens whose only attempt at communication is the enigmatic message "Never again attempt to develop this kind of technology." Apparently referring to advanced research being carried out in those three cities. What follows is humanity uniting to build a space fleet capable of defending themselves from further attack, and to find out just who their attackers are. Initially, three are built; one each built by China, Iran and the EU. So far, so good. It is what happens once these ships are built that is not so good.

By an extremely unlikely set of circumstances, all Chinese Naval officers senior to the protagonist with the required qualifications to command the Chinese ship, were at a required training session in Beijing during the attack, and were all killed. The protagonist is a young, attractive female Lieutenant of the Chinese Navy. Apparently, her sole qualification is her familiarity with the advanced technology in question, acquired during a whole TWO HOURS on site as a liaison to the project. This, it seems, is sufficient for the Chinese government to place her in command of China's first starship, and a full third of the world's entire space fleet!

Instead of rising to the occasion, she proceeds to behave like an emotionally immature teenage girl. First, she makes a headlong attack on an alien ship, without making any attempt to determine its' identity, capabilities or intentions. When she is challenged on this by her XO, she reacts by ignoring him and proceeding with the attack. She is victorious, and captures a prisoner; an alien fighter pilot determined to be of the race that attacked Earth. Instead of treating the alien like a prisoner of war, she befriends it, and gives it the run of the ship!

This is where I stopped reading. At this point, I would expect a Board of Inquiry, followed by a Courts Martial to determine the protagonist's punishment, never mind remaining in command; but I doubt that level of logic will be a part of this story.Read more ›

Ok, I have to admit I read this book thinking it was an early novel by an established scifi author. By the time I realized my mistake - when I realized the plot and writing were not going to improve - I was far enough in that I wanted to see how the author resolved the plot. Well, that was a mistake. I am a sucker for sci fi - I'm willing to put up with cardboard characters and clunky dialog if there is an interesting concept or two and some credible world building. Sorry, there really isn't much of either of those in this book. The characterization and interpersonal relationships were really awful. I can't recall any character who showed any character growth or even who appeared to be multi-dimensional in any way. The main character - which the writer frequently reminds us is a Chinese woman - is not very likeable or believable. Why the male author chose to write from a female perspective escapes me. The book is filled with cultural references to the 2000s (Harry Potter, for example) and I find it very difficult to believe that all these more or less current cultural references will still be relevant in the future. The science made very little sense, and the motivations and actions of the aliens were completely illogical. For example, why would one captured alien suddenly become a traitor to her entire species? Further, why would the aliens use a technology that has awful potential impacts on the universe to quelch other worlds' development of that same technology? I mean, I see why they want to tamp down that development, but why would they use the same dangerous technology to do so?So, while I think the author has some germs of a good story and idea, and, unlike many authors of free ebooks, has a grasp of spelling, grammar and punctuation, I would urge him to keep working on his craft. And I would urge readers to wait until he does so and wait for that later work, rather than read this series.

More About the Author

I've always been thinking of stories for as long as I've been alive. I have way, way, way too many to tell and far too little time to tell them.

I joined UFOP: Starbase 118, a Star Trek roleplay-by-emails group, in 2010 and it was there where I learned my craft. But despite being one of the more active writers in the group and simming to my heart's content, I still couldn't tell all the stories I wanted to. It was only in 2011 that I actually started shaping and weaving those random, jumbling, chaotic masses of thoughts into coherent narratives and began self-publishing.

Writing's my full time job now. I write a little science fiction, a little fantasy, a little humour and comedy, and a few other things all over the place.